Address to the Civic Service for Croydon for Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Romans 8.28-39 God’s love in Christ Jesus

Proverbs 8.1-16 The gifts of wisdom

 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

   his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;

   great is your faithfulness.

‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,

   ‘therefore I will hope in him.’

(Lamentations 3.22,23)

 

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This evening we have gathered from across this Borough of Croydon to commemorate and give thanks, before God, for Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Tomorrow the whole world gathers, virtually, with our United Kingdom and the Commonwealth for Her Late Majesty’s funeral service in Westminster Abbey.

The intention of services like this one, taking place in Cathedrals and Civic Churches throughout the land, is to enable communities to come together to pray, reflect, mourn and gives thanks for our Late Queen before tomorrow.

This was always a hope of the Queen in the plans for the events that would mark her death.

In death, as in life, she is a focal point for bringing disparate people together, which was surely part of her genius as our Queen.

In a richly diverse Borough such as ours we know just how important it is that people come together, trust one another, celebrate all that builds up the Common Good: the Queen embodied just that.

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These last 10 days have been a most remarkable time.

We have been mourning the death of our Queen, sometimes surprised just how raw it has felt; we have been acclaiming the Accession of our new King; we have been acutely aware of the sadness of the Royal Family - she was their mother and  grandmother –and many have queued to file past her body lying in state.

That is an emotional roller coaster for us, and how much more for King Charles and the Royal Family.

We must keep him and them all in our prayers.

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The words of the scriptures this evening speak of ancient and enduring wisdom – ever old and ever new - and the conviction of the power of God’s love.

The first reading was from the book of Proverbs, a text of Hebrew wisdom literature shared by Jews and Christians.

The passage praises wisdom as ‘better than jewels’, as the key to a good life, truthful living, prudent decision making and resilience, and states,

By me [wisdom] kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; by me [wisdom] rulers rule, and nobles, all who govern rightly.

The Bible is consistent in saying that however bejewelled a crown; the monarch is nothing unless crowned with the wisdom that flows from God.

In challenging times, at all times, wisdom is profoundly needed in public and personal life.

That’s what we saw our late Queen who lived a life of wise insight.

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The second reading was from a letter St Paul wrote to the earliest Christians in Rome.

It reflects on God’s purpose in human lives and our trials and tribulations.

‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ?’ he asks.

He concludes, in beautiful terms, that nothing in all creation ‘will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

This springs from St Paul’s conviction, shared by Christians to this day, of the deep hope of the resurrection: the conviction that life triumphs over death: light overcomes darkness: hope transforms despair; that death has lost its sting.

Her Late Majesty, a Christian, shared this faith and hope that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the definitive statement of God’s boundless love and salvation.

It was for her the rock and inspiration of her life; something of which she spoke so powerfully in her Christmas broadcasts.

In an Easter message during Covid she said: ‘"As dark as death can be - particularly for those suffering with grief - light and life are greater."

That sprang from her Christian hope.

The Queen’s Christian faith was serious, committed and sincere and the deep roots of her faith gave her the grace to be hospitable and always open to those who faith or belief was other than hers.

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As a Borough, in all our richness, we commemorate her and give thanks for her.

Tonight, books of condolence have been placed before the altar and, in a few moments,  candles will be lit, prayers offered and then the Bishop of Croydon will commend the Late Queen to God and we pray her on her way.

The evening comes: the evening of the day, the evening of life: tomorrow a new day dawns.

Tomorrow the mortal remains of our beloved Late Queen will be brought to a holy place; prayer will be offered and then she will be committed, beyond our sight, into the hands of the Eternal God, her maker and redeemer, and ours, before whom we all fall silent.

Support us, O Lord,

all the day long of this troublous life,

until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes,

the busy world is hushed,

the fever of life is over

and our work is done.

Then, Lord, in your mercy grant us a safe lodging,

a holy rest, and peace at the last;

through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Entranced by God; not in thrall to money

Amos 8.4-7 I will never forget your deeds, you who trample on the needy

1 Timothy 2.1-8 Pray for everyone to God, who wants everyone to be saved

Luke 16.1-13 You cannot be the slave of both God and money

 

‘You cannot serve God and wealth.’ (Luke 16.13)

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It’s pretty blunt.

‘You cannot serve God and wealth.’

If you are in thrall to wealth, you cannot serve God.

If you truly serve God, then wealth and the acquisition of money for the sake of it cannot be on your radar.

It’s often heard as a condemnation of the rich, but that is not what is said.

Jesus does not say, ‘you cannot serve God and be wealthy’

Rather he says, ‘you cannot serve God and wealth.’

If we think this is just about the rich we miss the point.

The rich can of course be obsessed with wealth, and so can the poor, and so can those in the middle.

This is about our spiritual disposition.

The question is: what really drives your devotion? Where do you invest your value and meaning?

It is the case, as Jesus puts it elsewhere, ‘where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’ (Luke 12.34).

If what you treasure is money and the acquisition of money then God will be far from your heart.

Is money your master? Or do you have mastery over money? Are you a servant of wealth or do you use what you have to serve others?

We must be realistic; money is important; money enables things to happen, from the basics of buying food and clothing, to the ability to have a treat.

Jesus does not condemn that!

And let me say that worrying about money when money is short is not what we’re talking about here.

The cost of living crisis and escalating fuel bills will make us all more worried about money than perhaps we have been before.

That’s the case on a personal level; it’s true for the church: how the church has to resist thinking just about money and not about the treasure of the Gospel!

Still, whether we have a lot of money or very little, Jesus’ blunt saying asks us to see beyond wealth and material gain to what true treasure is.

St Peter once encountered a man sitting outside the Temple in Jerusalem who could not walk and was begging.

What could Peter give him?

‘Peter said, ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’ (Acts 3.6).

We may not be wealthy, but we still have treasure to give.

Ultimately money, whilst vital, cannot save.

The treasure we serve is not the treasure of gold or silver but a treasure deeper and richer than anything we can imagine; that is the power of God and promise of heaven.

For the Church, and personally, this means seeing the abundance in what we have and not always seeing scarcity wherever we look; seeing abundance in a creation - a spirit of gratitude makes that possible.

In turn we need to know ourselves to be treasured by God; that is why his own Son gave up everything out of love for us.

Flowing from the awareness that each of us is precious, Christians have always treasured those who society does not value: the unborn, the distressed, the disfigured, the dying.

Serving God not wealth, means that we don’t see people as economic units, either net contributors or recipients, rather all people are the people God’s treasures.

‘You cannot serve God and wealth’ says the Lord.

Serve wealth and bow down before it and you will imperil your soul; use wealth in service of God and his people and your treasure is in abundance of life in this world and the next.

 

A sermon preached on the Sunday following the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II

 

Preached on the Sunday following the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II

 

This is indeed the will of my Father’ says the Lord, ‘that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’

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The Christian hope is in the life of the world to come; that nothing is lost and all is redeemed.

What that means in practical terms is that we live our lives knowing that heaven is real, that our identity is not extinguished at death, but rather fulfilled, and the crowning of the Creation is to be a New Heaven and a New Earth.

We believe, in the words of the Song of Songs, that ‘many waters cannot quench love; neither can the floods drown it’.

We have this hope because Jesus Christ has conquered death.

To live the Christian hope is to anchor our lives in the worship and adoration of God, made known in Christ Jesus and sustained by the Holy Spirit.

For Catholic Christians this means faithfulness in receiving the sacraments; perseverance in a careful life of prayer; deep attention to the Scriptures; and living lives that are not turned in on themselves but look outwards in service of others and, in so doing, serving Christ himself.

That pattern is something of what we know of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

It would be hard to have missed over the last three days or so, the outpouring of words expressing memories, tribute and praise of our late Queen, and one of the key features is her sense of service and duty.

Those characteristics didn’t come from nowhere; they came from being anchored in the Christian Faith of which she was, as her son now is, Defender.

Our late Queen, for all her life in palaces, surrounded by servants and a Royal Court, understood that she was a servant.

It isn’t always a given that kings, queens and leaders should be like that.

Jesus said of the leaders of people that they ‘lord it over others’; it is a verity that leaders generally incline to be tyrants and despots.

We see it in our world today as much as in history; there are national leaders who do not see themselves as servants of their people, in fact quite the contrary.

The idea that Kings and Emperors could trample over everyone is broken only because of Jesus Christ.

Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, declares himself servant of all.

Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews); his throne is the cross, his ‘palaces’ are all the places where forgiveness and salvation is brought and where the Kingdom of God is proclaimed.

Jesus set this pattern at the Last Supper, he washed his disciples’ feet, the origin of the Royal Maundy ceremony, and called us to the banquet where we share his life.

In the light of Jesus Christ kingship and majesty cannot be conceived in the same way again.

Not all British monarchs have lived this out; not all Christians, including priests and Popes, have lived this out, yet that is what we are called to: service of God, service of our neighbour

Yet many have understood this call to service.

It’s beautifully captured in the phrase of St Gregory the Great, who was the Pope who sent Augustine and his companions to re-evangelise the English nation.

Gregory aspired to be, in his native Latin, ‘servus servorum Dei’: ‘servant of the servants of God’.

Elizabeth II was formed by that example and is an inspiration because of it.

We give thanks to God for this Christian woman, called to be a monarch, who was at her anointed her baptism and confirmation, like us all, and then, unlike any of us, anointed Queen.

This echoes Psalm 23, a Psalm of David, the shepherd king of Israel, ‘you, LORD, have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over’.

King David continues, ‘Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever’.

Goodness and mercy followed our late Queen all her days; and our Christian hope is that she now dwells in the house of the Lord for ever.

She lived her life in that hope, and may we all be inspired similarly.

Our sadness will pass; the storms of Thursday and Friday have literally passed, and the sun is shining again: in that light hear again the words of the prophet Isaiah:

And the Lord God will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death for ever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces. (Isaiah 25.6-9)

There is Christian hope: in living scripture.

And today, in the sadness of Her Late Majesty’s death, we can draw deeply too from the comfort of Psalm 23, which promises that the LORD will ‘spread a table before us’; this points us to the Eucharist in which we share and the banquet of heaven which it prefigures.

Of that mystery Christ says, ‘This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’

Her Late Majesty held that hope and shared it with the nation and world.

She was an evangelist, a sharer of the Glorious Gospel of Christ.

May the Lord draw her to himself, anoint her with his love and draw her to the banquet of heaven. And in His Majesty the King’s words, ‘May “flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest”‘

 

Putting down possessions to take up the Cross

 

Wisdom 9.13-18 Who can divine the will of God?

 

Philemon 9-10,12-17 He is a slave no longer, but a dear brother in the Lord

 

Luke 14.25-33 Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple

 

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Our gospel begins with Jesus travelling on the Way.

 

This is a ‘way’ in the sense of a path, a road, a direction of travel; think Purley Way, but transfer that to the Holy Land!

 

But it’s even deeper than that.

 

The word ‘Way’ is a code, because before we were known as ‘Christians’ we were known as followers of the Way; the Way of Jesus Christ.

 

So it’s not the Purley Way; it’s the Jesus Way; the Way of the Cross.

 

Our gospel is a meditation on what it means to follow the Way of Jesus Christ, and it hinges on the Way of the Cross.

 

When we are baptised, before the life-giving water is poured upon us we are anointed with oil in the sign of the Cross: ‘Christ claims you for his own. Receive the sign of his cross.’ (Common Worship: Pastoral Services)

 

We are marked out, literally, to walk in the Way.

 

Jesus Christ walks the Way of the Cross and says ‘Come. Come, follow me. Walk with me’.

 

And in Baptism there is a decision to be made: ‘do you turn to Christ?’ In other words, will you come and follow him?

 

When someone turns to Christ it is an act of human will; but it is also an act of letting go into the will of God.

 

‘What man indeed can know the intentions of God? Who can know the will of the Lord?’ asks the Book of Wisdom.

 

St Paul gives some pointers to those ancient questions in his first letter to the Corinthians:

 

¹⁸ For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written,

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

   and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’

²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?… ²³…we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. (1 Corinthians 1.18-20,23)

 

The will of God is seen in the Way of the Crucified One, Jesus Christ; this is the way today’s gospel invites us to follow.

 

‘Are you going to walk this way? Are you going to follow me?

 

And it is dramatic in what it presents.

 

The Gospel text today drives towards the concluding words, ‘so in the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions’ (Luke 14.33).

 

That is blunt speaking!

 

Unless you can let go of your possessions and preoccupations you can never take up the Cross.

 

To pick up the Cross is to put down the other things we carry when we go our own way.

 

The problem with possessions is that they tend to become obsessions.

 

Obsessions are things we have to the exclusion of everything else.

 

It is easy to see how that is true of some things: when someone is obsessed by money, luxury, celebrity, sex, alcohol, drugs, and become dependent on them, it is easy to see how their hands, and hearts, are too full to pick up the cross.

 

But Jesus says we can also become obsessed even by good things: family ties, tribal obligations and close relationships; these too can become obsessive; when that is the case it means that hands, and hearts, are too full to pick up the cross.

 

Even aspects of church life can become an obsession when they are not fully rooted in the Way of the Crucified One, and we distract ourselves by tasks and activities that divert us from the Most High.

 

Obsession with things puts me at the heart of my own drama – my ‘ego-drama’ – rather than putting myself in the drama of salvation – the ‘Theo-drama’, or God-drama, as it has been called.

 

Ultimately what so we really want? What is your deepest desire?

 

Human beings are creatures who desire.

 

So often we misdirect our desires.

 

Clinging to possessions and being possessed by our obsessions is one form of desire, but ultimately it is a self-destructive desire.

 

Jesus’ tough and almost brutal words in today’s gospel should shock us; shock us into seeing clearly what crowds God out of our lives, so that we cannot carry the cross and walk in the Way of the Crucified.

 

Do we really desire to journey in the Way of the Cross?

 

For the baptised the sign of the cross is marked upon us and we die with Christ and are raised with him; in the Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist, we share in the life-giving sacrifice of Christ on the Cross; when we confess our sins we reorient our desires to Christ, and him alone.

 

We’re on for all of this?!

 

And how we know we need God’s grace to complete what we have started, and to do that our prayer might be:

 

Lord, may I possess nothing that becomes an obsession to me, but may I be possessed by you, whom I desire in my deepest being, and to whom I already belong. Amen.